The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1887-04-14

THE GAMBIA ALS.
THE FACTS ABOUT THE .MAN-EAT.
ERs OF THE WORLD.
Tribes Who are Addicted to Human Flesh
~ Diet Among the Most Advanced Of
Savage Peopls-A Taste That They Try
:snd Conceal.
If the reader were suddenly placed in
the midst of q tribe of cannibals he
would find, If they gave him time to In
vestigate, that they are by no means the
lowest and most degraded types Of hu-
manity, as is commonly supposed, but are
mentally and physically superior to the
non-man- eating tribes around them. There
are some exceptions to this rule, as for
instance the large but timid Pamballa
tribe, who were discovered south of the
Congo two years ago. "Oh, yes" they
plaintively said to the explorers; 1--WE like
to eat people when we can get them, but
we are men of peace and our enemies are
strong and warlike, and we get very little
meat" The Pamballa are perhaps the
only cannibal tribe yet found in Africa
who are not equal or superior In devel-
opment and natural capacity to the tribes
around them.
Among the greatest cannibals in the
world are the Monbuttu, whom Schwein-
furth discovered on the Welle Makua.
They often make war for the sole
purpose of obtaining human flesh.
They dry the meat for transporta-
tion and herd the prisoners they drive
home like cattle in stock yards; yet the
Monbuttu build the largest houses that
have been found in savage Africa. King
Munza's gable-roofed audience hall would
easily seat 1000 persons, and the Mon
butta ironware and pottery now in the
Berlin chronological Museum have hardly
been equaled by any other specimens
of savage manufactures.
We knew comparatively very little of
African cannibals until within the past
ten years, but many facts about them are
now constantly accumulating. In all his
travels Livingstone probably never saw
cannibal tribe. The great home of AZ
rica's man-eaters is the Congo valley.
They first introduced themselves to Stan
ley when they chased him down the river,
and their frequent cry of "Meat meatp
long rang in his ears. The biggest battle
he fought was with the fierce Bangala
warriors, who were in the habit Of eating
the enemies they captured or slew in
battle. And here may be mentioned a
curious and encouraging fact about can
nibal tribes in general
Few of them will let a white man see
them eat human flesh, and they will
stoutly assert that they are not guilty of
such practice. Big cannibals as the
Monbuttu are Dr. Schweinfurth lived
among them some weeks before he caught
family eating part of a human body.
They denied it, but he was too well ac-
.quainted with human anatomy to be de-
ceived. After Stanley established sta
tion among the Bangala their cannibalis-
tic practices were carried on in secret
The cannibals among the hundreds of
islands of Melanesia usually appear to be
very much ashamed of the practice when
questioned bv white men. It naturally
results that when the whites acquire con-
siderable influence among these tribes 1t
is not very difficult to induce them to
give up their horrid custom. The Ban
gala, the finest and most enterprising
tribe on the Congo, have almost wholly
ceased to be cannibals. The Congo State
is now training these men who wished to
feast on Stanley's little band to be
soldiers to till the station fields and to
serve as boatmen on the steamers The
many hundreds of native Christians in
Melanesia are all converted cannibals.
So cannibalism is gradually disappearing,
though it is still far more common
thing than Is generally supposed.
Some tribes, however, glory in their
appetite for human flesh. Near the Kas-
sal river while ago explorers Kund and
Tappenbeck encountered a tribe who
were ON the lookout for additions to their
larder. "You have plenty of men," they
cried; "why don't you give us some Of
them to eat? You don't wish to be our
friends. When the Majacca come among
us they always bring us few men to
eat. They are our friends" A tribe not
far from the Niger river, until within q
| few years, has been in the habit of hav-
| ing regular markets where human flesh
| was exposed for sale. A few years ago a
missionary was killed and eaten BY a
mountain tribe in Fill The chief some
time later became reconciled to the
British occupation of his country and
friendly to Sir Arthur Gordon, the gov
ernor. One day Sir Arthur asked him
about the missionary. The chief ad-
mitted that he had been eaten, by whom
he knew not, but for his part the very
thought of eating white men was repu1-
sive, as they smoked strong tobacco and
drank whiskey.
| you're liar" shouted disrespect-
| full old man who heard the remark. "The
missionary tasted as good as any one else,
and you know it," In burst of candor
the old man had admitted that he at least
| helped eat the missionary
Some American missionaries have re-
Gently begun to labor among the Muceli,
the only cannibals to be found in Angola.
Mr.. Monteiro says the Muceli are the
finest tribe of blacks he has met in Africa
and he thinks their superior physique
and other qualities may be partly due to
their cannibalism, which supplies them
with larger proportion of animal food
than other tribes use. 1t seems strange
to read that the only cannibals in Angola
are distinguished from all the surround
ing tribes by "their superior honesty and
I NIL q